All posts tagged Tesla

Shortly after Tesla Motors and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk spoke of the need to be wary of “Terminator”-like outcomes from artificial intelligence, another tech visionary stressed the power of robots to spread love, joy, and peace.

SoftBank Corp. chief executive Masayoshi Son invited the Japanese firm’s emotion-sensing robot Pepper onstage during the annual general shareholders’ meeting Friday. The two competed on tongue-twisters, with Pepper rattling off a tongue-twister 100 million times faster than Mr. Son — and getting some laughs for it. Read More »

While the big three U.S. car makers once again shun the Tokyo Motor Show, startup electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc. views Japan as a market brimming with opportunity. Why? Because Japan is a nation of technophiles.

“From an American point of view, Japanese consumers are extremely open-minded. They are extremely open to new technology,” Kevin Yu, the Director of Retail Development for Tesla Motors in Asia Pacific, said at a briefing, held in Tokyo ahead of the motor show. Read More »

“The reason why Toyota doesn’t introduce any major [all-electric product] is because we do not believe there is a market to accept it,” Mr. Uchiyamada said in an interview following a speech on Monday at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C.

That’s not to say Toyota hasn’t benefited from its partnership with electric vehicle maker, Tesla Motors. Toyota has received a powertrain for its RAV4 electric vehicle and also some venture-fueled excitement for its employees. Oh — and it also has paper gains of approximately $503 million on the 2.941 million shares of stock it bought in Elon Musk’s company.

Bowing and getting teary-eyed may not have helped Akio Toyoda on Capitol Hill, but it seems his latest charm offensive – jobs in the U.S. — is working.

ZUMA Press

President of Toyota sheds a tear.

For months a lightning rod for criticism from Washington politicians for its botched handling of its U.S. recall, Toyota has just earned kinder words from the ultimate U.S. lawmaker: Barack Obama.

Speaking during a visit to a solar panel manufacturer in Fremont, California, the U.S. president welcomed Japan’s largest automaker’s role in helping unemployed workers find jobs via its deal with electric car maker Tesla to reopen the previously shuttered NUMMI plant. “Thanks to loans through the Department of Energy, which helped provide Tesla motors with the financial wherewithal to expand, that shuttered plant is soon going to reopen. And once again — once again, it will be a symbol of promise, an example of what’s possible here in America. Tesla is joining with Toyota in a venture to put a thousand skilled workers back to work manufacturing an all-electric car.” Read More »

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Japan Real Time is a newsy, concise guide to what works, what doesn’t and why in the one-time poster child for Asian development, as it struggles to keep pace with faster-growing neighbors while competing with Europe for Michelin-rated restaurants. Drawing on the expertise of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, the site provides an inside track on business, politics and lifestyle in Japan as it comes to terms with being overtaken by China as the world’s second-biggest economy. You can contact the editors at japanrealtime@wsj.com